"When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the morning light, for your life and strength. Give thanks for your food, and the joy of living."

Hello,

It's been a while since I've been able to post on this thing. Life has been so crazy. I am finally finished with my Fieldwork II at Red Oak Elementary. I finished last Wednesday. I had a lot of fun. I had to teach three different lesson and tutor students. During my first lesson, I broke out in hives. I had never done that before. It was quite funny. Luckily, you couldn't really tell because I was wearing a suit so very little of my skin was showing and it was just on my neck and chest. I had to go to the bathroom after my lesson and I looked in the mirror and all under my chin and down my chest were these red marks...they quickly faded though. Thank goodness. My first lesson was an introduction to action verbs so I had the students play a game of charades with a bunch of actions. Then I did a lesson on the short story "The Big Storm" which is a nonfiction on the storm that crossed the U.S. in 1982 causing a bunch of damage. We learned about "squence of events" and "cause-and-effect" relationships. The last lesson I did was on the Earth's changing landforms. We talked about weathering, erosion, deposition, and the agents that cause these (wind, water, ice, gravity). I used alot of pictures and they really enjoyed it. I had found pictures that documented a rock formation off shore somewhere and how it changed over the span of a hundred years. They had fun trying to predict what would change and then observing the changes. The last picture this formation had totally been eroded away...they thought that was so cool. I really realized during this experience that teaching is exactly what I want to do. It requires alot of hard work with little material reward but I had the best time teaching and was really proud and excited while I was doing my lessons. So, anyways. Now I am moving onto my practicum next semester where I have to teach a unit which is ten consecutive lessons on one idea or series of connecting ideas. Who knows when I will be able to graduate. Mercer isn't offering the classes I need when I need them so I have to waste time until the classes come back around. Hopefully sometime with in the next tens years...that would be nice.

Zach, my brother, has moved back home. He was oringially going to stay on at No Longer Bound However, he decided because of certain circumstances that he needed to move back home. Therefore, I have been having to rearrange and "make room" for him again. I have lived in the basement of our house for a year now by myself and so I have spread my territory to the whole floor. Now, I am having to shrink my domain. It has taken awhile...you never realize how much junk you have until you try to move it.

I joined the gym... my brother and I went together and joined Gold's Gym. We created a system...we go three days on and one day off. We then alternate our routine. One day we do 20 minutes of cardio then work our legs, back, and abs. The next day we do 20 minutes of cardio and work our arms, chest, and abs. Everyday we work on our abs because that is where we have the most padding to get rid of. It was halarious on our first day. Zach said we should do our cardio on the elliptical because it is a running motion and we get the most workout from it...so on the first day he got on his and began at full speed. I got on mine and it was broken....I couldn't move it. I stopped my brother and told him that mine was broken...he then inturn tells me that I have to push with my legs....I try and try and eventually the machine started to turn.... I felt so retarded. However, after four minutes I had to stop because my thighs were on fire. I think that some of you are lying when you say that you stay on that thing for an hour. You have got to be...I was going to die. So I moved to the treadmill and speed walk. Now when people ask me what we do for our cardio I say we runalk...Zach runs and I walk.

Anyways, I hope that you all are going to have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Take time out to reflect on what you are truly thankful for and how God has blessed you. Have a good holiday. Love you.